Design Blitz

For the purposes of a class assignment, I was asked to observe design elements in my everyday life. Design is everywhere and it was not hard to pick out these elements once I knew what I was looking for. I tried to look for works of all kinds: good, bad, mediocre, and all. Below, I will share what I found (please excuse the poor quality of the photos).

I see this poster quite often. I’m pretty sure it was some kind of Soviet, anti-drinking propaganda poster. I like the function that it serves. It has but one word, but the message is clear. I also like the softer colors used in what I assume was a painting. A lot of other posters of this kind use the bold red, which can seem abrasive sometimes.

It seems that I like signs that tell me not to do things that I like to do, but I like the layout of this sign. It is well balanced and symmetrical. The only thing I do not like about this sign is the “or.” It does not go along with any of the other text and isn’t really even necessary. The space before the “or” is a little off-putting, also. It looks like it is justified on both sides. No me gusta. I doubt, though, that whoever designed this cared too much about it.

If you get the Spongebob reference in my caption, I like you a whole lot more. If not, don’t sweat it. The thirteen year old boy in me had to take a picture of this book. The title “When I Came West” isn’t the problem, but rather how the type is structured. Dominance is the word to use here. The designer wanted to put more emphasis on the word “west” by making it larger, but put the words “when I came” grouped together and in a loud black. I guess it depends on who you ask, but I know which words were dominant when I looked at this cover. The look on that face doesn’t help either.

This is the new sign in station at the language lab in Kaufman Hall. I like what they were trying to do with the picture on the left part of the screen. I like the typography there, but the rest of the screen is far from proportionate. First of all, I think there should be a space between OU and ID, but that could be debated I suppose. The left side of the screen just seems so much heavier than the right. I would change the layout from three columns to two, making the number pad as wide as the picture and moving the sign in/out button section above the number pad. Also, I think a sans-serif would have gone better with the picture on the left.

Finally, I chose something that I look at every day–the face of my watch. I don’t know if minimalism is the right word, but I like how simple the design is. The digital readout is obviously the focus, but I like the words that surround it. The colors are very subtle and the text serves it’s purpose, but doesn’t distract the user. The watch itself is simplistic as well. There aren’t a lot of bells and whistles, just the basics.